MASKED GULL, 431 



SO important a collection, probably became aware that this 

 species was found in Orkney, and included that locality 

 among others for this species, in the second edition of his 

 Manual, published in 1820. In 1831 Mr. William Lord 

 presented to the Zoological Society about thirty skins of 

 birds collected during the previous summer in Shetland ; 

 among them Avas one specimen of the Masked Gull, or 

 Brown-headed Gull, as it was also called, the Larus capi's- 

 tratus of Temminck, of which I published a description with 

 measurements in the Society''s Proceedings for that year, 

 page 151. In March, 1833, Wm. Thompson, Esq. ex- 

 hibited at one of the evening meetings of the Zoological 

 Society a specimen of the Lams capistratus of Temminck 

 that was shot in the neighbourhood of Belfast. In 1833, 

 in a notice of birds found near Carlisle, published by T. 

 C, Heysham, Esq., is the following record : " The Lesser 

 Brown-headed Gull, Lams capistratus. An immature fe- 

 male of this rare Gull was accidentally procured near Sands- 

 field on the Gth of June. It was found associating with 

 several of the Black-headed species, Lams ridibundus, but 

 remained after all its congeners had taken wing, was shot 

 at, and fortunately killed. From an inspection of this bird, 

 we are satisfied that this species may be very easily over- 

 looked, and that many ornithologists would consider it mere- 

 ly a small specimen of the Black-headed Gull. We have 

 deemed it advisable, therefore, to give its weight and di- 

 mensions. Weight eight ounces and a quarter ; length 

 fourteen inches and a half; extent of the wings thirty-six 

 inches ; bill to the front one inch and one tenth ; bill to the 

 gape, or rictus, one inch and eight-tenths ; tarsi one inch and 

 six-tenths ; middle toe and claw one inch and five-tenths.'" 

 T. C. Eyton, Esq. in his catalogue of the birds of Shropshire 

 and North Wales, mentions that one specimen had been 

 killed near Bangor, and was in his own collection. 



